


One Thing I Know.

by LarkandLioness



Category: Shades of London Series - Maureen Johnson
Genre: Angst and Romance, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Awkward Romance, Awkwardness, Based on a Tumblr Post, Drama & Romance, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, POV First Person, Relationship(s), Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates, Teen Romance, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 21:12:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LarkandLioness/pseuds/LarkandLioness
Summary: Soulmate AU where you're born knowing one thing about your soulmate you can never forget. Some people know their soulmate's favorite food, favorite color, or their birthday, but you...you know their glasses prescription.





	One Thing I Know.

**Author's Note:**

> Soulmate AU where you're born knowing one thing about your soulmate you can never forget. Some people know their soulmate's favorite food, favorite color, or their birthday, but you...you know their glasses prescription.

It started out small and innocently.  
"I need a new pair of glasses." Stephen said one day in March.  
"Why?" I asked.  
"The screw keeps falling out." He replied.  
I thought a minute, and smiled. "I saw a glasses repair kit at the store!"  
Something evil occured to me. "Wait. You said the screw keeps falling out?"  
"Yes." He replied.  
I couldn't resist. I slid up to his side, gave a flirty look, and said something. I won't say what. It was pretty terrible. It involved a screw.  
Stephen's face went red. He stuttered. It was adorable. His glasses fell to the floor and shattered. He swore. It was very educational.  
I stuck to his side no matter what, and tagged along with him when he went to pick up his new glasses.  
There weren't many people around the store to watch as I hopped from foot to foot in line.  
Stephen got to the front of the line, and rattled off his order, changing my life forever, as I realized I had known it by heart all my life.  
_It was...that means... _I thought.__ I felt dizzy.  
I'm really bad at keeping secrets. I have to tell people things, ask questions, before it sinks in that yes brain, this happened to you. I looked around. There weren't many people around who I thought would hear us, so I chatted to the pharmacist about it.  
"I'm sorry miss, that's private information." Her blonde ponytail swayed slightly as she shook her head in disapproval.  
"Oh! Sorry..."  
Stephen glanced at me.  
The pharmacist looked at me intensely over the rim of her thick black glasses. "Are you family, or..."  
"I'm his soulmate!" I blurted out.  
Stephen looked at me, stunned. He gave a furtive glance around the room, quickly grabbed his bag, and left.  
I kept my head down, and stared at my feet as the doors opened for me. Usually Stephen would slow down whenever we walked together, but this time he walked a little ahead of me. His expression, whenever he turned to look at me, was full of mixed emotions.  
The wind twisted my hair around my face and into my mouth as I jogged after him. Stephen got in the car before I did. He didn't put on his seatbelt, or grip the wheel. His face was a smooth, pale mask as he stared straight ahead.  
His voice was like a crack of smooth, brittle ice. "So you're my soulmate."  
"Yes."  
"Your favorite color is orange." He said, smooth and even.  
"Splashy orange." I elaborated. "My binders and notebooks are all orange.  
"Well, were all orange." I added. I didn't know what happened to them, since I hadn't had time to get them after I ran away from Wexford. But I didn't think I should bring up school right now. .  
"I eat orange foods first (or last)", I said instead. "I like eating out of orange dishes too!"  
He didn't respond. It was time to change the subject.  
I took a deep breath, and told him my story.  
"It happened to me when I was six." I said. "A few jumbled-up letters and numbers that I couldn't understand even after I learned to read.  
Nobody in our family knew what it meant.  
We all had good eyesight. Even my uncle, who walks around town every 4th of July with guns and stares at the sky. He shoots bullets away from birds." I added.  
If Stephen was caught off guard by this, he didn't show it. I expected that. But I knew he was listening because I saw his shoulders relax. It wasn't a long story. But I wanted to draw this moment together in the car as long as possible.  
People hurried to their cars and drove around us until the lot was almost empty. The sunshine quickly faided away, but while I kept talking even as my butt got sore from sitting so long, and my throat got partched, Stephen never said anything.  
When my story was over, it was very quiet. Stephen bit the inside of his cheek hard. He ran both of his hands through his hair. "Must you say that back there so loudly? He jirked his head in the direction of the store.  
"I don't think anyone really listened, or even cared." I pointed out. I bounced my leg nervously.  
"But there were cameras, and the footage inside might not be easy to erase." Stephen countered. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "It's just bad timing."  
"It's _always _bad timing for us."__ Rain pattered dismally on the windows. "If our enemies knew, really knew," his voice rose, "about us..." He paused for a long moment. He looked like he wanted to say something.  
"What?" I asked. "What is it?"  
He didn't answer. When he spoke again, his voice was so soft, I could barely hear him over the erratic rapping and tapping of the rain. "I don't want you to get hurt." His voice was raw with painful sincerity.  
"By what?" I asked. We were on the verge of something big, I could feel it. I stretched out a hand.   
Stephen looked at me with a haunted expression. "Anything else." He croaked as he shied away from my hand. It hung in the air for a second, but after seeing the fear in his eyes, I let it fail into my lap.   
There wasn't anything to say after that.  
He started the car, and our headlights cut through the gloom. We rode in silence. I looked out the window and watched the outside world blur into a mess as the rain came down in torrents. .  
Stephen, surprisingly, covered me with that long black coat he always wore as I got out. His warmth, his smell, shielded me from the icy downpour as we bumped shoulders on our way home.  
Suddenly, I was standing in the kitchen, my feet freezing, as Stephen pointedly avoided me afterwards. He wiped his glasses, and left the room without saying anything.  
It's not me that's the problem, it's our enemies.  
He thinks he's protecting me.


End file.
